Strand treatment



E. E. SIZEMORE STRAND TREATMENT Filed June 5, 1968 March 31, 1970 WINDUP SLUB REMOVAL BULKING v m rz/vme EDDIE E, .S\ZEMORE M fia/ r 4/23 United States Patent 3,503,105 STRAND TREATMENT Eddie E. Sizemore, Elkton, Md., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Techniservice Corporation, Lester, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed June 3, 1968, Ser. No. 734,075 Int. Cl. D02g 1/12 US. Cl. 28-72.14 14 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A primary object of the present invention is improved slub removal from bulked multifilament textile strands.

Another object is elimination of breaks attributable to excessively severe attempted slub removal from textile strands.

A further object is provision of guide means for removing slubs from textile strands.

Other Objects of this invention, together with means and methods for attaining the various objects, will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying diagrams.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the successive steps of bulking, slub removal, and windup customarily performed in that order whether in the prior art or by this invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are partially schematized end and side elevations, respectively, of apparatus for practicing the present invention. Bulked strand is withdrawn from the exit end of chamber 11, which may conveniently be the stufling chamber of a stutfer crimper as in List et al. Pat. 3,027,619 or Stanley et al. Pat. 3,279,025, for example. After passing over fixed bar guide 13 located above the chamber end, strand 10 passes downward through eye guide 14 carried on the free end of flexible strip 15 fixed at its other end. The strand then passes upward over fixed bar guide 16 and then over drive roll 19, which may be of self-traversing type, and onto package 20 rotated by surface contact with the drive roll.

As indicated by broken lines and double-ended arrows, flexible strip 15 on which guide 14 is mounted vibrates up and down while strand 10 is passing therethrough. While if the strip is sufliciently flexible it may tend to vibrate somewhat, it is made to vibrate according to this invention at a desired frequency as by suitable electromagnetic, pneumatic, hydraulic, or simple mechanical means. Indicated schematically in FIG. 3 is electromagnetic actuation in which the reciprocating movement of the flexible strip alternately makes and breaks an electrical circuit through coil 21 of a nearby solenoid having soft iron core 22. The solenoid is located to attract the strip when a magnetic field is set up by current flowing from source of electrical potential E through the completed circuit, but the resulting upward movement of the strip separates electrical contacts 23 and 24 from one another, thereby interrupting the circuit, whereupon the magnetic attraction ceases and the strip falls away from the solenoid. Contact 23 is fixed in location, while contact 24 is carried on the flexible strip itself. As the strip drops, the two contacts re-engage, re-energizing the circuit so as 3,503,105 Patented Mar. 31, 1970 to re-attract the strip upwards, breaking the circuit, and so on. If the flexible strip itself is not made of iron, steel, or other magnetizable metal, a piece of such metal may be aflixed to the strip adjacent the solenoid core with like result.

Vibration of flexible strip 15 is most apparent at eye guide 14 carried on the free end of the strip. This vibration has a most beneficial effect upon bulked strand passing through the guide, in that slubs and like entanglements are reduced considerably, if not eliminated, and without breakage.

The amplitude of swing of the guide on the end of the flexible strip may be controlled by appropriate selection of the strip size and composition and, of course, by suitable adjustment of the vibration-actuating means. This may be visualized most readily in the instance of equivalent mechanical actuating means, such as a motor with a cam or eccentric rotating thereon in contact with the strip so as to move it. However, it is equally true of electromagnetic, pneumatic, and hydraulic means as will be apparent to persons having ordinary skill in related matters.

A swing of the vibrating guide from about a tenth to a few tenths of an inch ordinarily will suflice for slub removal from a strand of from about a hundred to a couple thousand denier at ordinary winding tensions. The optimum frequency of vibration .may be dependent on rate of travel of the strand, but for ordinary rates of travel from a few hundred to more than a thousand yards per minute a frequency within the range from about ten to a thousand cycles per second. A power line frequency of from about fifty to sixty cycles per second is convenient and usually suitable. The strand path preferably should be deflected by the vibrating guide through an average angle within the range from about thirty to a hundred fifty degrees, divided more or less evenly on both sides of the guide, i.e., upstream and downstream.

FIG. 4 shows use of two vibrating guides insuccession: eye guide 14 on flexible strip 15 and eye guide 28 on flexible strip 29 with strand 10 passing through both and over fixed bar guide 20 therebetween. Strip 29 is shown thicker than strip 15 to indicate a difference in vibration amplitude or frequency, or both, the vibration-actuating means being omitted from this view for simplicity of the showing, it being understood that the frequencyof vibration and the swing may be controlled by suitable adjustment of the actuating means as indicated above. Use of two dissimilarly vibrating guides, actuated at different frequencies or through different amplitudes of swing, or both, is conducive to more complete slub elimination because some slubs may be affected more by one guide than the other, as well as by sequential vibration perhaps.

Although certain embodiments of this invention have been illustrated and described, it should be understood that other modifications may be made, as by adding, combining, or subdividing parts or steps, or substituting equivalents, while retaining some or all of the advantages and benefits of the invention, which itself is defined as follows.

The claimed invention:

1. In treatment of multifilament textile strands wherein bulk is imparted thereto, the improvement comprising passing the bulked strand in contact with a guide member between two relatively fixed guiding locations, continuously vibrating the guide member transversely at a given frequency, and thereby guiding the strand along the resulting variable-length path to reduce the incidence of slubs in the bulked strand.

2. Strand treatment according to claim 1, wherein the strand changes path direction at the guide member through an average angle selected from the c ass of acute and obtuse angles.

3. Strand treament according to claim 2, wherein the guide member is vibrated in a plane substantially bisecting the average angle of change in path direction at the guide member.

4. Strand treatment according to claim 2 wherein the change in path direction at the guide member is within the range from about thirty degrees to about one hundred fifty degrees.

5. Strand treatment according to claim 4, wherein the average change in path direction is about a right angle.

6. Strand treatment according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of vibration of the guide member is Within the range of from about ten to a thousand cycles per second.

7. Strand treatment according to claim 6, wherein the frequency of vibration is about fifty-five plus or minus ten cycles per second.

8. Strand treatment comprising bulking a multifilament textile strand, winding the strand past an intermediate guiding locus ofiset laterally from a straight-line path for the strand, vibrating the strand transversely to and fro at the laterally offset guiding locus of the winding strand in accordance with a predetermined frequency pattern, and simultaneosly winding the strand therefrom relatively slub free.

9. Strand treatment according to claim 8, wherein the strand is bulked by stutter crimping.

10. Strand treatment according to claim 8, wherein the strand is vibrated over only a portion of its length defined between a plurality of fixed support loci.

11. Strand treatment according ot claim 10, wherein the path of defined length portion is characterized by a change in direction averaging about ninety degrees at the locus of vibration.

12. Strand treatment according to claim 8, wherein the strand is vibrated at different frequencies at succeeding length portions thereof.

13. Strand treatment according to claim 12, wherein the strand is wound first past the locus of higher frequency of vibration and then past the locus of lower frequency of vibration.

14. Strand treatment according to claim 12, wherein the strand is wound first past the locus of lower frequency of vibration and then past the locus of higher frequency of vibration.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,166,821 1/ 1965 Furlong.

3,180,004 4/1965 Fisher et a1.

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,012,078 4/1952 France.

LOUIS K. RIMRODT, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 242.l47, 153 

